A recent cohort of immigrants and refugees celebrates the completion of their mental health leadership training with a potluck at The Women’s Initiative. Photo by Viridiana Reyes.

A collaboration between The Women’s Initiative and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is promoting resilience in immigrant and refugee communities in Charlottesville.

Trauma-Informed Cross-Cultural Psychoeducation (TICCP) Leadership Training begins its fourth cohort this June with a series of workshops that help immigrants and refugees develop their leadership skills around well-being and mental health.

TICCP is a “train the trainer” curriculum created by Dr. Hyojin Im, Assistant Professor of Social Work at VCU. Participants learn how to raise awareness around the mental health impact of refugee and immigrant trauma as well as cultural adjustment to a new country. They also enhance their competency for mental health and support within their community. Additionally, they form a healing partnership with mental health professionals that will improve health care access for their community.

Participants trained in this model will be able to teach community wellness workshops in their native language.

Previous cohorts of this program have included immigrants and refugees from nine countries.

The training is free and comprises eighteen hours over six workshops. Participants must be proficient in reading and speaking English.

If you or someone you know would like to be a part of the next cohort, contact Ulises Martinez: umartinez@thewomensinitiative.org or (915) 274-8512; or Megan Young: megan.young@rescue.org or (434) 979-7772 x119.